As the elevator stopped on the eleventh floor Dan held it with a fire-fighter’s override key that Emily had procured. There was one guard outside the room and he watched her walk towards him with her head bowed down modestly and staring towards the floor. He then marched purposefully towards the doorman whom he saw eyeing him suspiciously. The man reached inside his jacket. He did not notice Emily stop and pull her abaya aside and take a Taser out of her belt. There was a snapping sound and a rapid clicking from the weapon and then Dan watched the man tremble violently for a moment and then fall to the ground. He reached inside the guard’s jacket and fumbled around until he found his gun; he stashed it inside his bag and pulled out his own silenced automatic which he shoved against the man’s stomach. Emily pulled the Taser darts out of his neck and gave him some rapid orders.
‘Now you stand very close to the door so you block the view through the spy hole and then when my friend knocks on the door you say you need to come in to use the bathroom. You will keep your hands behind your back. Don’t make any mistake or my friend will blow your balls off.’ She prodded him in the groin with her own automatic to emphasise the threat. Under stress he had changed from a dangerous looking heavy into a somewhat bemused, overweight, middle-aged man. He did as instructed.
Emily pulled off her Arab garb and stood one side of the door with a Taser at the ready and Dan stood on the other side. He knocked on the door. They waited for about ten seconds and then the door opened.
‘What is it?’ a voice asked from inside. Dan thrust the door wide open and Emily Tasered the man inside and he collapsed.
‘Ok, go in,’ she ordered the first guard and gave him a push. Emily sheltered behind him as he shuffled forward reluctantly and on the far side of the room she saw a third man aiming a gun towards them.
‘Drop it! Emily ordered.
The man fired a shot that whistled past the ear of the guard and narrowly missed her. She reached around her hostage and shot the man in the thigh sending a spurt of blood onto the carpet. Her victim dropped his weapon and fell to the ground screaming.
‘Shut up!’ she called, pointing her gun towards him. He stopped screaming and shuddered and moaned quietly. Dan ran forward, picked up the gun and checked the bedroom and bathroom.
‘There’s nobody else here; where’s Mulholland?
The guard who had opened the door began to push himself to his feet and Emily placed the Taser against his neck. He began to curse her in a stream of Arabic invective.
‘Be quiet or I’ll blow your head off,’ she ordered, pointing her gun at his face. The man lay still taking short panting breaths. ‘Ok Smith lets bind them up. You’d better wrap a towel around his leg.’
Dan pulled out his bundle of cable ties and secured their prisoners at the wrists and the knees and ankles. The man with the bullet wound shuddered in pain as he pushed his knees together. Emily glared at them with her gun at the ready.
‘Well it seems Mulholland’s not here, so where is he?’ At first none of them seemed willing to answer, but she pressed the muzzle of her silencer against the temple of the most nervous looking one and repeated the question in Arabic.
‘Mr Mulholland is gone. His meeting is cancelled! We three just work for the hotel.’
‘Bullshit! What did he tell you to do?’
‘He told us enemy agents were coming after him. We were to wait in his room and…and hold them.’
‘Yeah right! Well we’ve got the bastard!’ she said. Dan was somewhat nonplussed by Emily’s statement.
‘Got him how?’ asked Dan. ‘Where is he?’
‘Sorry, not Mulholland,’ she replied, ‘the bastard in Muscat who’s been helping him out!’
‘What do you mean?’ Dan demanded.
‘We knew it was one of two possible people who could have been working with Mulholland. Thirty minutes ago Richard Davies informed someone named Dewhurst that agents were in Fujairah and Dewhurst’s the only one who might have warned Mulholland that we were coming after him today.’ She pulled out her phone and pressed a speed dial number. ‘Hi Richard… it’s Emily. Put Dewhurst under wraps… Yeah.’ She glanced at Dan. ‘Yes he’s here with me.’
‘Do you mean Stephen Dewhurst the British army guy?’ Dan asked.
‘Yes. He’s been ripping off the Sultan and selling military spare parts on to Mulholland, and now he’s going to be arrested. A local trial I expect. It might be a little uncomfortable for him in an Omani prison but maybe he’ll get lucky and serve his sentence back in the UK.’
Dan stared at her, trying to sort out all this information. ‘What about Mulholland?’ he asked.
‘We’ve got all the ports and airports in the UAE and Oman covered, and I doubt he’ll get away. Besides which Dewhurst should give us enough evidence to seize all his assets and wipe out his operation.’
‘A result then,’ said Dan.
‘Yup. This lot will give us some leads to the Pakistani side as well, if they want to trade time in jail for information.’
‘So what do we do with these three now?’
‘I’ll call the local police; they can arrest them for drug dealing, or something.’ She pulled a packet of white powder wrapped in plastic out of her handbag and dropped it on the floor.
‘What’s that?’ he asked, although he had already guessed.
‘Cocaine. Just enough to make a case.’
He remembered how Richard Davies had described her as completely ruthless. ‘Rough justice,’ he ventured.
‘Huh! I only used a Taser until that bastard tried to shoot me. He’s lucky to be alive.’ She called out sharply in Arabic and Dan saw them stiffen. ‘As you can tell they’re not looking forward to being taken in for questioning.’
‘Are we done here then?’ Dan asked.
‘Actually I’ve been invited on a Fujairah customs raid,’ she replied. ‘You could come along too if you like. We’re going to visit the Tarrada and see if we can find ourselves some missiles.’
Four hours later Dan and Emily were sitting in the bar. ‘Well we recovered two dozen Stingers from the boat,’ he said, ‘so that seems to have been a successful operation.
‘Yes… yes it does, though we still haven’t picked up Mulholland yet.’ She picked up her drink and took another swig at it and then stared moodily at the empty glass as if it held some secret in the dregs. Dan had been looking for an opportunity to invite her out to dinner, but this evening didn’t seem to be a good time; he decided he would wait until they got back to Muscat. Instead he said ‘Oh I‘ve been meaning to ask… who was the other guy under suspicion for helping Mulholland? Anyone I might know?’ Emily peered at him over her glass and then put it down slowly and looked him in the eye.
‘Actually it was you, Dan.’
‘What?’ he growled.
‘Well it’s as I said when we first met. You have financial problems, only of course they’re not gambling debts. Your sister was cheated by her worthless ex-husband so you helped out her and her kids; your parents’ money is all going in medical expenses and then you were screwed by that investment company and you’ve been left with debts of twenty seven thousand dollars not including the mortgage on your apartment.’
Dan stared at her for a few seconds. ‘You bitch!’ he murmured, ‘so you’ve spent the last two days waiting to arrest me, or worse!’
‘Before I met you I spoke to Dewhurst and he struck me as being very guarded and evasive. You, on the other hand, seemed perfectly natural and open. I was immediately convinced it wasn’t you, and when I outlined the operation to you as we drove to the border my impression was confirmed.’